﻿Accademia Galleries

The
Gallerie dell’Accademia is a museum
gallery of pre-19th-century art.

It is
housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere
of Dorsoduro.

The palace
originally was an ancient casa da Stazio, a typical Venetian merchant residence featuring
an inner courtyard, a loggia with a colonnade, and a garden. It was expanded in
the XVI century and decorated with frescoes,
marble and stucco that make it absolutely
unique in Venice, more similar to its Roman counterparts of the time.

On the
first floor piano Nobile, you can admire the Chamber of Callisto
adorned with stuccoes by Giovanni da Udine, or the Chamber of Apollo, with frescoes by Francesco Salviati and
stucco and grotesque decorations by Giovanni da Udine, the Foliage Room and Dining
Room decorated with naturalistic motifs by Camillo Mantovano, the
sumptuous fireplaces and the
striking original Venetian floors.

Palazzo Grimani is famous for the precious collection of ancient marbles. In 1587, a significant part of the collected was bequeathed by Giovanni Grimani to the Serenissima Republic of Venice, with instructions that the works should be exhibited to the public in the anteroom of the Libreria Marciana, the original structure of which may still be seen today.